“The echoing sound of the temple bell is a call to me from the Buddha in the Pure Land. Everything radiates warmth around me- trees, grass, air and, above all, people. It is all the Buddhas or good Dharma friends of the Samgha who have led me to realise this world of gratitude and grateful response.” Woman at the temple.

“My mouth is all too ready to pronounce ill of others, despite the fact that pronouncing the nembutsu is a precious gift.” Young Dharma friend.

“When I breathe in air I do not usually feel gratitude to it and when I gulp down water I do not think how much I owe to it. Likewise, even though I am blessed with having parents, I fail to appreciate how much they have given me.” Senior Dharma friend.

“In our lives as long as we are sailing along freely in a fair wind, we regularly pay respects to the Buddha. When serious problems occur, however, we should continue to try and do so.” Young priest.

“I always assume that it is I who have been thinking of you with loving kindness. Eventually, however, I come to find that nobody has been thinking of me more in fact than you have. This wonder is Namu-amida-butsu.” Senior priest.

“It is because we reach that depth of experience in which we are illumined by Amida’s ‘One Mind’ merit-transference that we are able to gain the fundamental power that allows us to really make an effort in everyday life. But we are only able to do this through encountering ‘a good teacher’.” Head Priest

“The expression 'becoming Namu-amida-butsu' refers to the inconceivability that a child (sentient being) becomes one with the parent (Amida Buddha) through receiving the Buddha’s Prayer.” Head Priest.

“People usually hope they won’t die until the moment they actually do so. They keep on thinking they will recover right up to the very end of their lives. Then, when they reach the point of no return, they are utterly dismayed. ” >From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“When you come across the death of another, let it be a warning of your own.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“Nembutsu followers are foremost in their readiness for death.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“What is termed ‘the accumulation of good karma (shukuzen in Japanese)’ does not refer merely to past actions. Today’s listening to the Dharma becomes tomorrow’s shukuzen .” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“To follow a good teacher’s instructions is to follow Amida Tathagata’s summons.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“It is a good teacher who guides and cures the blind and the deaf.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“If you really want to listen to the Buddha-dharma, the very pores of your body, all eighty-four thousand of them, must also become your ears.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“It is not merely through our ears that we listen [to the Buddha-dharma]. Always thinking of the Honoured One, whether we are asleep or awake, is also part of our listening. From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“Telling oneself that the reason one's wife does not understand the Dharma is because one's own understanding of the Buddha-dharma is not deep enough, one should humbly reflect on oneself in every respect.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“The essence of the Buddha-dharma lies in entrusting oneself to the Tathagata and receiving every word of his teaching as though addressed directly to oneself.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“The actual life you have been living right up until this very day ? take it as the borderline between Hell and the Land of Utmost Bliss.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“Try and study the Buddha-dharma while you are still young, for when we grow older the ‘skin’ of our karma becomes that much thicker.” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“Someone once said, ‘Looking at the will I'd made, I wondered what would remain with me now that I was giving away all that I possessed. But of course nobody would receive my personal karma, created in the course of collecting all those possessions. When I came to understand that only evil karma would be left to me and that I had to shoulder it as I went on my way, I was unable to sleep all night.’ ” From The Collection of the Sayings of Venerable Kojuin.

“Although my father had long been the object of much criticism and hostile feelings on my part, once I learned to respect him as a Dharma friend I began to feel grateful to him for his parental love.” Young Dharma friend.

“Though they be acquainted with as many as eighty thousand teachings, those who know nothing of Birth [in the Pure Land] shall be called ignorant. Others, though they may be illiterate men and women devoting themselves to the Buddha-dharma whilst leading the life of laypeople, because they know about Birth they shall be called wise.” From the second letter of Fascicle 5 of The Letters by Rennyo.

“The other shore is open to us each and every moment we are allowed to live our lives in this world.” Senior Dharma friend.

“Our consciousness that we have committed such and such wrong-doings can certainly be called an awareness of our own ‘evil’, but it still remains only as a self-reflection or regret at best. I understand the very fact that we are filled with blind passions is the fundamental source of evil [in the light of the Buddha].” Senior Dharma friend.

“Self-control and self-care ? controlling our blind passions and keeping our body and mind constantly healthy ? are also part of Buddhist training.” Senior Dharma friend.

“I have learned from Daigyoin-sama that the act of pitying others and trying to help them is not ours but the Buddha’s and that the sort of person who visits a sick friend out of sympathy and says to that friend, ‘Even though you are suffering a great deal, please make an effort to recover’ does not know their own limits and is behaving as if they were already a Buddha. I myself am not good enough to help others. All I can do is simply appreciate what has been done for me. Only my joy, free of all designing, will help others develop themselves.” Senior Dharma friend.

“On the television screen there appeared the words, ‘Given their own space and time, anyone can survive anywhere.’ When I was seriously ill and without any hope of a tomorrow, the place where I could meet my Dharma friends was the only real space for me and my service to the Buddha was the only real time.” Head Priest.

“How wonderful it is that you have found a world in which your father on the other shore and your father on this shore have become one. We need no learning other than this. ‘What is essential is’, Daigyoin-sama says, ‘to destroy our selfishness at its roots’.” Head Priest to a young girl student who lost her father.